Do You Belong to a Procurement Dream Team?

The age of workforce 4.0 is fast-approaching. Have you ensured you’ve got a dream team in place to help you navigate your way through the rapid changes ?

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So. Here’s the scenario. After years of effort, elevating the role of procurement and complaining that Procurement doesn’t have a seat at the table in sectors where procurement is yet to tread (yes, in 2017 there are still organisations and sectors that do not have procurement teams or resources), your phone rings. It’s a CEO. And you’re invited to their office.

Now, this is the age of Workforce 4.0, so as we know, the CEO is agile and their office is the coffee shop near the school where their young children are running the lunchtime class teaching the adults how to tweet on facetube and grow vines on instachat.

Procurement is Awesome

As you sit down and your coffees arrive, the CEO looks you in the eye and says “Enough already. I get it. Procurement is awesome. Right. I want you to set up a dream team. Hire any five people you want. I’ve followed you on Twitter, read all your @Procurious_ and LinkedIn blogs, I’ve listened to the @aopshow and I get that there are some serious issues to deal with. I need you to do it and I want you to pick your team. Facetime or Skype me when you’ve done it.” And off you go…

How many of us are ready for that call? Whether it’s for a greenfield procurement team, or for a transformation programme or business critical project, do you have a list of five people in your head that without hesitation, you would call and bring on board to work with you to get it done? We can ignore minor administrative issues like availability, notice periods, or people processes for the purposes of this, but are there five people that you would hire, brief and set loose on the task without a second thought, safe in the knowledge that “it’ll be fine, [insert names] are on it and success is safe in their hands”.

What does the procurement dream team of the future look like?

I can’t quite remember where I was first posed this question. It was more than likely in a pub in the dim and distant past, but I remember first applying it when I worked in recruitment. If I was sifting CVs for a client, I tried to put myself in their shoes and ask, “If I was them, would I hire this candidate and put my success in their hands”. If I couldn’t say “yes”, or at least “maybe”, then I wouldn’t waste the client, or the candidate’s time. That was a long time ago and before I’d even heard of Procurement!

Are you ready for “The Call” is a question I’ve asked colleagues over the years too, usually on car journeys, and it keeps them awake and puts them on the spot.

Anyway, where am I going with this? Here are three things to consider about the future of procurement teams.

Procurement-as-a-service could be a big deal

Not my concept and not new, yet is a concept which has been increasingly discussed and heralded as the future of the function. It may well be that the future of working in procurement begins to sound a little more like this. Organisations will access resources to deliver specific outcomes rather than hiring employees and then wondering what to do with them.

Seriously, who is in your dream team?

You never know when that call might come, or when that platform starts to burn and you have that project you need to deliver. Can you pick your ‘dream team’ from current or former colleagues, or from all the people you’ve met and developed relationships with through all the networking you do?

Where’s your name?

Is your name on the team sheet of others? You may not be the one that gets the call. Your colleague or your peers may be the one having to decide who to bring in. Are you doing the best job you can, delivering results and developing the soft skills needed for tomorrow as well as networking, sharing your stories and taking ownership of your personal professional brand?

The dream team

Now, I might be about to do some oversharing here, but I personally have a ‘Dream Team’ WhatsApp group. A bit of fun to start with, especially as the joke was that ‘Group Admin’ does not count as a demonstration of leadership qualities! But over time, it has kept me connected to those people. We use it most days to share news, keep up to date (it’s all 100% professional of course). However, if I received the call, these are the people that have earned my respect and trust. I wouldn’t hesitate to contact them.

I am fortunate that my team currently has more than 5 people in it. When I get the call tomorrow I’ll be ready. But what if we were asked for a team of 10, or 20? My mindset is that I’m still hiring, and still looking to be hired by others too. I wonder if this mindset might prove useful in future?